With only the 3 the main Channels of BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV; television of the ‘60’s was more of a social event and talking point than it is today. With scores of Channels to choose from now, other than the soaps, X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing, TV has practically died as a conversation point because it’s rare any two people see the same show.

At that time, everyone watched certain programmes like Sunday Night at the London Palladium, and those extremely tedious Brian Rix farces where he always ended up being caught with his trousers down; which seemed to be shown every Bank Holiday because they would be a talking point at work next day, so people tended to make sure they saw certain programmes an effort to be sociable and socially accepted.

Watching the ‘Miss World’ televised event would be one of them, especially in 1964 when Poole’s then ‘Carnival Queen,’ Ann Sydney, brought our town to worldwide attention and acclaim by winning the much-coveted title.

For the male population of the UK in an era when the St. Trinian’s and Carry On films were regarded as risqué, it was an excuse to somewhat legitimately watch young women parade up and down on a stage wearing just a bathing costume. And despite the bikini going as far back into history as ancient Rome, it was not popularized until the mid-1940’s, and was not regarded as socially acceptable to wear when competing for the Miss World title at that time. Indeed, historically, ‘Page 3 Girls’ didn’t happen until November 1970, when a 20 year old German model, Stephanie Rahn, posed topless in ‘The Sun’ for the very first time This caused such a sensation amongst the population of working men who bought that newspaper, it caught on, and sales soared from 1.5 million to 2.1 million copies per year.

Today, no doubt, Ann Sydney would be one of the top ‘Supermodels’ earning far more than she ever did in the ‘60’s, and probably showing a little bit more, too. But she made the town of Poole extremely proud when she won the title, and the accompanying fame also boosted the holiday trade as she had brought everyone’s attention to this ‘beautiful place’ in which we live.

*With some degree of controversy attached, Poole’s Sarah-Jane Hutt also won the Miss World title in 1983.

*Lesley Langley, from Weymouth, also won the title in 1965.

August 17th, 1982 was quite a day for the children of the Poole locality when Jon Pertwee, dressed exactly as his TV alter-ego, Worzel, made a personal appearance at the Poole Market.

Poole Market was held where Sainsbury’s now stands just off the main High Street, and the whole area, including the car park and shops to the rear of the piece of land, had for decades, been the site of Poole Gas Works. But the advent of North Sea Gas being piped into homes rather than the fuel being manufactured from coal, the ‘ozone-hostile’ gas works was demolished, and during the interim period of it being flattened and Sainsbury’s being built; the ground was used for a Saturday Poole Market.

Of course, it was packed out with parents and children whom had become fans of Worzel and his friends in the weekly TV series, and Worzel himself arrived in a beautifully restored Model T Ford car, in which he was slowly driven around the ‘arena-like’ area, with hundreds of children, including our daughter, Natalie, who were standing shoulder-to-shoulder around the perimeter. Twenty minutes or so later, a live elephant entered into the event, with Worzel feeding the animal some hay, and even climbing up astride the creature’s huge neck and riding it around the small arena, much to everyone’s delight.

A little later, when Worzel had once again got to his feet to walk around doing a ‘meet-and-greet’ by shaking his scarecrow-gloved hand with as many of the thronging masses of kids as he could, the 5 year-old Natalie was thrilled at being one of them.

It was an amazing hour or so, indeed, and one which many children from that generation might
remember? It is not often these days that we get ‘Stars’ at any events in Poole. In my youth, ‘Poole Hospital Fete’ would be held annually in Poole Park, and I remember one year Jack Warner, the Star from the ‘Dixon Of Dock Green’ TV series opened it, and another year Bruce Forsyth, then the Star of ‘Sunday Night At The London Palladium’ did likewise; yet now, either I am out-of-touch, or is it that events like this just don’t happen any more?

*Readers may also like Alan’s book ‘When Upton Had Trains’ available
at WH Smith in the High Street or www.natula.co.uk